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Jonas
Ever heard of a man called Vincent Gragnic? No, you probably haven't. Then let me have the honour of introducing him to you all. Back in the summer of 2007 he followed in the footsteps of Mathieu Valbuena and made the trip from minnows FC Libourne to giants Marseille, but unlike le petit vélo (the small bike) Gragnic was never a success and only made 3 appearances for l'OM before moving on to Reims after a loan spell at Troyes. Those 3 apps is still his only taste of football at the highest level in France. In the Ligue 2 however, that's where magic happens. He's been our best player by far this season and a real joy to watch all season long. And this time, this time, he won't fail in Ligue 1.
Johno
Jonas
Indeed. And it's always extra fun when you get something like that from a player it's not expected of.
Franck
Jonas
Just like many other clubs throughout France, AJ Auxerre are of no exception when it comes to producing young talents. With a population of only 39,000 the club's local recruitment area is obviously not the biggest one, but thanks to the city's closeness to Paris and it's surrounding suburbs combined with the club's well-established scouting network, Auxerre have managed to produce some of France's finest talents through the years. Also meaning very few if none of them have been actual local lads hailing from the city itself.
This year's youth intake might not compare to the likes of Phillippe Mexes, Djibril Cisse, Bacary Sagna and Younes Kaboul etc. but let me present the kids nonetheless. These are the most interesting this time around:
Franck
Johno
Jonas
Transfers 2015/2016
In
Out
Also decided to release first team squad members Sébastien Puygrenier, Jamel Aït Ben Idir, Karim Djellabi, Geoffrey Lembet and Henry Ndong, and 27 youngsters. Been trying to sell the likes of Pierre Bouby, Livio Nabab, Diadidé Diarra and Amary Baby too but without any luck.
Other major transfers in Ligue 1, meaning Monaco and PSG's transfer dealings:
Johno
Jonas
It's been a while but I've played some matches since last time out.
To my big surprise the board are expecting a mid table finish, just as the media has tipped us for a 10th place in our comeback season in Ligue 1. I guess getting money to spend from the board comes with expectations.
And I can't say we lived up to those expectations in the league opener at home to Rennes, which ended in a 0-1 defeat. However the performance on the pitch were promising as we dominated the game and deserved to get at least a point from the game. We should have beat Le Havre, a team we beat twice in Ligue 2 last season, but those early season games as a newly promoted team are never easy. Managing a 1-1 draw away to giants Lyon felt like a win though and proved to be a confident booster as we found form and managed three wins on the trot in the following games. We could have made it four in four away to St. Etienne but despite putting on a brave display for nearly 50 minutes with 10 men, ASSE came out on top with an injury time winner.
What a game! 11 goals!
Easily the greatest achievement of my Auxerre career thus far. Babacar was on fire and netted a hat-trick, and a sweet revenge for Gragnic against his former employer.
Ending the first 10 games of the season with a 1-1 draw at home to PSG wasn't half bad either.
What a start to the season!
Alveio
And it's pretty funny, in every single game I've played since FM13, PSG ALWAYS buy Hamsik ^^
Johno
Jonas
It's time for another update...
As I forgot all about this thread I almost played through the whole season without thinking of taking any screenshots etc. so here is a brief summary of the season up until now. And my word, what a journey it has been for us!
Ligue 1
We last left the action back in October as we managed to hold PSG to a honorable 1-1 draw at home. As you guys can see we kicked on from there and only lost one game before the short winter break. 4-4-1 in nine games - impressive stuff for a newly promoted side to complete the first half of the season! Even more so as key players such as Thomas Fontaine, Frederic Sammaritano and Abeiku Quansah were out injured for some time during that period. Up until the home defeat to Marseille in February we only continued our fine form and looked completely unbeatable at times.
We have lost some points in the last couple of games against tough opposition but having maintained our magnificent home form we're still in the race for a Champions League spot. Who would have thought that at the beginning of the season?!
Four games left and it's still anyone's game for the Euro cup spots behind the super power that is PSG. We're playing Bastia (h), Monaco (a), Montpellier (h) and Rennes (a). Playing Rennes and Monaco that are up there with us is a good thing, as it means we don't necessarily need to rely on other results going our way - the flipside being that both those games are away from home. Marseille have been on fire ever since they replaced Ruud Gullit, who went on to manage AC Milan, with Quique Flores and have only lost once since they beat us in February. The 3rd place is therefore looking like the most realistic target for us right now.
Coupe de la Ligue
Now where did that come from?! Haha. We nearly got eliminated in the first round against Ligue 2 side Brest and then went on to win the whole thing. Looking back we were lucky to get home draws both in the quarter and semi finals, albeit the opposition being rather tough. Those two games really showed just how good we have been at home.
We should have killed off the final way earlier than in extra time but due to some sloppy defending we invited St. Etienne back in the game twice. In extra time there was no doubt whatsover: Badibanga became the hero as he secured the cup title right before the break. Our first trophy and Auxerre's first Coupe de la Ligue title as well!
Coupe de France
Fortress Stade Abbé Deschamps! History repeated itself as we on our way to the final, like in the Coupe de la Ligue beat Brest after extra time and PSG once again. A real cup nemesis for Laurent Blanc's Plastic Fantastic FC. They have only lost once in Ligue 1 also setting a new point record, yet we have beaten them twice in the domestic cup's. How awesome is that? Haha, loving it! We're playing RC Lens or St. Etienne in the final.
Dan
Johno
Jonas
Jonas
End of the season update coming up boys.
First game against already relegated Bastia was a walk in the park as expected. André Senghor showing fine form blasting in four goals! Boto from the Auxerre academy got his first goal for the club as well. We then faced Monaco away. Sitting 7th in the table it's been a disappointing season for the big spending Monégasques and in an evenly matched contest we got the all important away point we were looking to get. At home we have been nearly invincible this season which meant we had no problem beating Zinedine Zidane's Montpellier quite easily.
This was then the situation before the last league round.
A draw away to Rennes would see us secure the 4th place at least whereas a win could result in a Champions League spot, given that Lille would stay behind us on g.d. as they were up against last placed Caen at home in a potential goal fest. With some luck i.e. Toulouse beating Marseille at home we could even end up as high as 2nd!
Now that's what I call how to finish in style. What a way to end an absolutely incredible season. As newly promoted. Wow! Lille only won their game 1-0...
As if that wasn't enough. Coupe de France final...
Somehow I also feel a little bit empty despite all the success. I can't quite believe how well the first season in our Ligue 1 comeback has been as I expected this to be a longterm project, step by step, year by year. 3rd place finish including a Champions League qualifying spot and two domestic cup titles in the first season as newly promoted. It's as if there's too much too early. The Ligue 1 title is still there to be won and there is plenty of challenges on the European stage but still.
Franck
Jonas
Haha, I shouldn't 'complain' I guess.
Interesting chart on the stages of the season.
Marseille = cyan
St. Etienne = pink
Rennes = blue
Lille = green
Us = red
First team squad stats for the season (all comps).
I'm delighted to see that nearly all of my summer signings have been tremendous all season long. Slightly disappointed with Nicola Leali but he's still young and learning. We will lose Frédéric Sammaritano to Ajax over the summer as I didn't feel his new contract demands really reflected his squad status, and Sid Ahmed Aouedj has already proved he can take his place as our left winger. I might bring in a new one though and my main target as of now is Rennes' Paul-Georges Ntep - an Auxerre academy product. I tried signing Khouma Babacar on a pre contract but I was stupid enough to wait until the end of the season which meant his demands all of a sudden were sky high due to his excellent performances so he chose to stay at Fiorentina instead. Looking back I should have gone for him earlier as he would have been the perfect replacement for an aging André Senghor.
Awards
Surprised to see Zlatan make the team as Babacar (19 goals/7.29 av rat), Marseille's Jérémie Porsan-Clemente (21 goals/7.25 av rat) and Emmanuel Riviéré (22 goals/7.36 av rat) all had better seasons.
Financial
Fan hero Vincent Gragnic still very much the most popular player!
Looking forward to the transfer window already.
Johno
Did you get good youth intakes this season?
KEZ_7
Jonas
Yeah, I'm quite amazed of how good we were. Will do an update on that next time out.
Cheers! To my surprise not really no. As said Sammaritano will leave on a free to Ajax, while Bordeaux and Lille are after Souquet and Badibanga respectively. That's about it. It could change as the transfer window opens perhaps.
K3V0
Keep this going man, really enjoyed reading through it all.
Jonas
Cool to hear that you like it. Will do my best to try and keep this going.
Jonas
Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps with the brand new centre de formation, French for academy (bottom left white housing complex) and the club's surrounding training facilities, situated along the 292km long river Yonne that runs through the city.
As stated many times in this thread already Auxerre has a rich history of producing young talents through their well established academy. However, the last couple of years have not been as productive as the previous ones - but with a brand new top youth facility hopefully that'll change over the years to come. This season four academy graduates; Léon (gk), Castelletto (dr), Boto (dl) and Gavory (aml) were given minutes in Ligue 1. I'll be looking to add to that number in the next couple of seasons.
Here is this year's most promising youth candidates.
I have also made three new bosman signings.
By mistake I started this save with the manager settings set to Continental A Licence and the past player experience to professional footballer (national level). This has led to me attracting interest from almost any club on the continent after just one good season. I have been linked to/had interview offers from the following clubs this season: Swansea, Lorient, Guingamp, Udinese, Torino, Blackburn, Nice, Southampton, Hull, Malaga, Toulouse, West Ham, Sevilla, West Brom, Lazio, Lyon, Nantes, Valencia, Montpellier, Marseille, Villarreal, Everton, Inter and Milan. Then this came up:
After some long and hard thinking I have decided not to take it and carry on with Auxerre. Something tells me the save would have died out had I taken it as it would turn out boring and I still have unfinished business at Auxerre. Can't say it wasn't a tempting offer though. Elsewhere in the world both Louis van Gaal and Arsene Wenger resigned from their manager posts this season.
Title winners 2014/2015
Premier League: Liverpool
Serie A: Juventus (Cagliari in 2nd lol)
La Liga: Barcelona
Bundesliga: Dortmund
Champions League: Real Madrid
Europa League: Liverpool
Oh, and this happened. Just to keep myself busy over the summer. Olympics coming up.
KEZ_7
Mutombo looks promising from your academy, great work so far
Dan
Jonas
Third season and Champions League football is back in Auxerre for the first time in six years. Back then the team qualified for the group stages having beat Zenit St. Petersburg in the playoff round. Going into the draw as unseeded we were drawn against Turkish giants Fenerbahçe, meaning it wouldn't be any easier this time around. Steaua would have been easier but then again CSKA Moscow and Dynamo Kyiv would have been tougher, so an okay draw all in all.
I have always fancied starting away from home in the 1st leg in European ties, so that was definitely a bonus for us. And we couldn't have asked for a better start to the tie as we won the game 2-1 in Istanbul, after two magnificent goals from Khouma Babacar. A renewal of his loan deal will certainly prove to be valuable for us this season. In the return leg a packed Stade Abbé Deschamps saw the visitors take the lead through Emmanuel Emenike in the 67th minute but wantaway winger Ziguy Badibanga equalised just two minutes later and basically killed off the tie. Through to the next and final round!
Unfortunately this was the outcome of the draw:
So wish me luck haha!
Also, this has happened:
Ended up 3rd in the Olympics with France U23 having lost to Germany in the semi-finals. We beat Holland 2-1 in the bronze final. Will return with info on our transfers once the transfer window has closed.
Jonas
Is it over already...?
Gutted by the result. Despite taking the lead they were all over us and thoroughly deserved their win. Hopefully we can turn it around at home but preventing that side from scoring looks really difficult at the moment. Also the perceptive reader might notice there is a new name in the squad. Goalscorer Paul-Georges Ntep from Rennes. An Auxerre academy product we brought back for £6.5M. A bit steep but for an own academy product it's worth it.
3-1-1 against PSG so far ain't too bad, eh.
Jonas
When you try your best but you don't succeed...
So, so close! We were even through to the Champions League group stages for 10 minutes haha. Losing on away goals is really hard to take, but then again I'm immensely proud of my boys beating Man City 4-2 at home.
It might be time we built ourselves a new stadium, maybe.
Despite the Man City loss there will be played some quality European club competition football at Stade Abbé Deschamps this season, and this is the outcome of the Europa League group stage draw.
I can definitely see us getting through to the next round from that group. Inter are still struggling, we beat Fenerbahce quite comfortably in the CL qualifiers - a side which are meant to be better than their countrymen Besiktas and FC København is a team we should beat nine times out of ten. I also get the feeling that the Europa League games become quite easy after some seasons on FM due to poor handling of the transfers/squads by the AI.